Of course, it’ll be an uphill battle for any of these to come to fruition this session, but a lawmaker in the minority party can dream, can’t he? Keep following Jackson on Twitter here, he’s also taking requests on his Facebook page. Stay safe, everyone. UPDATE: Jackson’s been hard at work while most of us are watching the ice slowly thaw at home.

Just had a big debate over cutting the university system even more. Decided not to, because obviously that’s a bad idea. #JustOneLegislator

Today in the Joint Appropriations Committee at the NC General Assembly there was a suggestion that closing the insurance coverage gap in states has proven much more expensive than first anticipated. Just after the conclusion of our legislative meeting Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear held a press conference addressing this very issue. In his statement to the media Gov. Beshear said claims that Kentucky could not afford Medicaid expansion have been “buried under an avalanche of facts.”

He went on to say:

An avalanche of facts that demonstrate to the satisfaction of anyone and everyone with an open mind that Kentucky can indeed afford to take care of its people. In fact, we can’t afford not to do so.

The focus of Gov. Beshear’s press conference was a new report from the Urban Studies Institute at the University of Louisville showing that the first year of expansion saved millions of dollars and created thousands of jobs in Kentucky. In addition, health care providers were paid an addition $1.16 billion for services.

The report also shows that for the FY17-18 state budget Kentucky will pay a biennial total of $247.6 million for expansion, which will be offset by $511.8 million in savings and additional tax revenue.

We have similar studies in NC showing that covering 500,000 more people would create jobs and boost state revenues. We just need more policymakers willing to listen to the facts flowing from states that have already made the wise decision to invest in the health of their people.

Be sure to check out today’s Fitzsimon File for a more thorough reaction to last night’s State of the State speech. For now, however, here are few preliminary observations:

The good: Pat McCrory can display a winning personality and there’s a reason he’s won a lot of elections. Even with all the mispronunciations and malapropisms, he can be very likeable and sincere. This was on display last night as he related stories about dirty water fountains, his first job as a student teacher and driving on North Carolina highways. He’s not a fat cat or a right-wing ideologue at heart — which partially explains why he’s often so bad at playing those roles on TV. The Governor likes tangible things to fix — which is one of the reasons he’s much better at talking about rehabilitating run down state buildings than discussing large, overarching issues like taxes and health care.

The bad: Unfortunately, the Governor just doesn’t seem to (or doesn’t want to) grasp the enormous gap that exists between his rhetoric (and his espoused ideal of Eisenhower Republicanism) and the policies that he has implemented over the past 25 months. Simply put, a genuine Eisenhower Republican would not have helped impose the most draconian unemployment insurance cuts in American history, enacted huge tax giveaways to the top 1%, denied affordable health insurance to hundreds of thousands of working North Carolinians or presided over the decimation of the state agency charged with protecting our rapidly declining natural environment.

A group of coalition partners working in North Carolina to close the Medicaid coverage gap has launched a new website called NC Left Me Out to collect stories of people who make too much for Medicaid and too little for private insurance. As the website explains, the Affordable Care Act specifically allocated funds to provide affordable insurance coverage to approximately 500,000 people in our state. Unfortunately, the Governor and the legislature have blocked those funds from coming to North Carolina. Many of the individuals and families who could use this money to get insurance coverage work in low-wage professions like construction, day care, and food service.

At a press conference today Dana Wilson, a woman in the coverage gap who suffers from MS, shared her story. You can watch her video here.

The legislature and the Governor need to hear from more people like Dana, the working poor who are being unfairly denied coverage. If you are in the coverage gap please consider sharing your story on the NC Left Me Out website. If you want to support the campaign then you can sign up as well.

Every week a new Governor shows the leadership to formulate a plan for extending insurance coverage to people in the Medicaid gap. Last week the conservative state of Indiana had a plan approved. States like Wyoming and Utah are moving forward with similar ideas. We need Governor McCrory to show us his plan for closing the coverage gap. He has publicly hinted that he wants to design a state-specific Medicaid waiver. Great, let’s get moving. Every day that we wait is another day people like Dana suffer.

We need to continue telling our stories to the media, to legislators, and to the Governor. If the economic arguments and moral arguments don’t win the day, maybe looking into the eyes of those who have been denied coverage will begin changing minds.

Maybe Gov. Pat McCrory will continue to cruise along as the state’s ribbon-cutter-in-chief in 2015 and leave all the real governing decisions to legislative leaders for yet another year. It’s certainly conceivable that he could eke out reelection next year by pursuing such a strategy so long as urban areas of the state continue to enjoy the moderate growth that’s accompanied the national economic recovery.

However, if the Guv wants to be taken seriously and be seen as anything other than a glorified errand boy for Senators Phil Berger and Tom Apodaca, he must stake out a strong position on a high profile issue and dictate the result. And, no, some relatively minor matter like historic tax credits isn’t enough to get the job done.

No, the only issue that really stands out in this area as the means for McCrory to truly establish himself as Governor is Medicaid expansion. McCrory knows it’s the right thing to do. He knows it will save thousands of lives and pump billions into the state’s economy. He knows that a huge and important segment of the business community is for it. Heck, his DHHS Secretary has already endorsed the idea. And he knows that the Senate leaders stand in the way.

All that remains for a real and definitive battle to ensue is, as we noted as few weeks back, is for McCrory to find his inner Jim Hunt, grab the elephants down the street by the ears and lead. For once, McCrory must find a way to bend the General Assembly to his will, rather than the other way around.

So, which will it be in 2015 — McCrory the would-be general or McCrory the same ol’ doormat? What the man says or doesn’t say about Medicaid expansion in tonight’s State of the State speech should give us a pretty clear indication.